Tina Brown: Tired of digital devices

Brown will be leaving her post as editor next year to launch her own company. | Reuters

By JAMES ARKIN | 9/13/13 7:43 AM EDT

Tina Brown said Friday that she is excited for her new venture into “theatrical journalism” because people are “tired of screens” and want more face-to-face interaction.

It was announced Thursday that Brown will be leaving her post as editor of The Daily Beast next year to launch her own company, Tina Brown Live Media. Brown said Friday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that live events are popular because people want to get away from digital devices.

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“If you can bring into it video and you can bring into it interesting staging and you can mix the guests in a way that’s compelling, that’s the challenge. You have to keep those eyeballs up there and not down here,” she said, holding up her cell phone.”In the world of screens, we’re all tired of screens. That’s why I think that live events have become so popular. Because I think people actually want to get away from these. They actually want to go out and have some human warm bodies.”

Brown said that she will miss The Daily Beast, but that she is excited about the opportunities that live events provide for storytelling.

“I really love doing these conversational platforms, these events where I can really showcase ideas, people who never really get airtime and mix them with the people who bring them spotlights. So you may come in for the celebrity but you stay and become moved by the stories of people you’ve never heard of before,” she said. “With these debates and this new platform I can actually go out there and create very fast a conversation, be able to bring in all the interesting minds that I know to kind of have that conversation and be able to do it in sort of real time very fast.”